Zack Snyder starts filming 300 next Monday

Blessed are those who can nail both of the new age cinema trends – graphic novel adaptations and sword-and-sandals epics. Warner Bros. is going for a screen version of Frank Miller's hyper-stylized graphic novel 300. It tells a story of a bloody Battle of Thermopylae, where King Leonidas and 300 Spartans fought to the death against an overwhelming force of invading Persians.

However, 300 is not your usual Gladiator-style epics. The director and an artist, Zack Snyder of Dawn of the Dead, fame drew all the storyboards and is going to shoot almost the entire movie in front of the green screen, just like Robert Rodriguez did on Sin City. Filming begins October 17 in Montreal. Gerard Butler is cast as the heroic King Leonidas.

"Zack Snyder takes the sandals out of the movie completely, so to speak. It's not going to feel like anything before," says Mark Canton, one of the movie producers.

Studio says it's going to remain true to the novel’s darkness and violence in bringing the book to life, even if it is going to get them the “R” rating. Remember though, that Frank Miller’s Spartans did not wear clothes on their “private parts.”